CHAPTER IV. he drew pay for the whole.29 Rank and title might be given in a moment; in a moment they might be taken away.30 Elements of antagonism. Moghul aristocracy: not hereditary. The political working of this policy will appear hereafter. For the present it will suffice to realize the elements that were in antagonism. The Moghul nobility in India was an aristocracy of white-complexioned foreigners. They had nothing that was hereditary. All foreigners with a fair complexion were termed Moghuls. They might be Persians, Turks, or Arabs; still they were termed Moghuls. The Padishah took his nobles from this 29 After the death of Akber there was a much greater disparity between the pay of the rank and the number of horse actually maintained. Both were fixed by the Padishah; the disparity was greater in some than in others. Bernier mentions a grandee who ranked as commander of five thousand horse and only maintained five hundred. 30 The working of the military administration will appear in the progress of the history. It will be seen that the Moghul army was weak and loose in its organization; it was of some political value in holding the empire together. Prince Selim, the eldest son of Akber, was commander of ten thousand horse; Murád, the second son, was commander of eight thousand. Danyál, the third son, was commander of seven thousand. No one, excepting a son of the Padishah, held a higher rank than commander of five thousand. The son of Prince Selim, the crown prince, only held the rank of five thousand. There were twenty-one grades, beginning with five thousand and ending in two hundred. All these are enumerated in the Aín-i-Akbari; Mr Blockmann has furnished the names and biography of every individual in these grades. Altogether there were four hundred and fifteen Amírs and Mansubdars in the above grades. There were also nearly fourteen hundred officers of lower rank, who are not named. Bernier had a low opinion of the Moghul grandees. Mr Blockmann includes Amírs and Mansubdars in the same list. But there was a marked difference between the two ranks. Bernier, in his letter to Colbert, states that no Mansubdar received less than a hundred and fifty rupees a month, or more than seven hundred. It may be inferred from this statement that all military officers drawing higher pay belonged to the rank of Amírs. Mr Blockmann remarks that the list of Amírs and Mansubdars discloses two important facts. First, that there were very few Hindustani Mussulmans in the higher ranks; most of the officers being foreigners, especially Persians and Afghans. Secondly, that there was a fair sprinkling of Hindús,-namely, fiftyone Hindús among the four hundred and fifteen Mansubdars. Mr Blockmann does not state the reason why there were so few Hindustani Mussulmans in the higher ranks; it was because such men soon lost their white complexion. class; they were ranked according to their com- CHAPTER IV. mands.31 The highest class comprised the Amírs; they might be regarded as the nobles properly so called, the grandees of the empire; they might be made governors, viceroys, or ministers. A second class was known as Mansubdars; a third class was known as Ahadis. Mansubdars and Ahadis were military officers.32 the white com It was impossible for such an aristocracy to be Exclusiveness of hereditary. As a matter of fact it was less heredi- plexioned. tary than the civil and military services of the British empire. In the third generation the complexion became brown. The grandsons of the greatest Amirs were thus ineligible for command; they often served in the ranks as common soldiers. Every noble and officer of the Moghuls, from No landed the lowest Ahadi to the highest Amír, was entirely dependent upon the Padishah. Their lives and goods were at his disposal. They were his slaves. They could not possess land; all the land was the property of the Padishah. They could not leave their property to their wives and families; the Padishah inherited the property of all his nobles 31 The term Moghul was popularly applied to all foreign Mussulmans with fair complexions. Neither religion nor race was regarded by Akber and his immediate successors. A fair complexion was the main point. It will be seen hereafter that a Christian or an Englishman might take rank amongst the Moghul officers. 32 There is reason to believe that India had been governed by fair-complexioned foreigners from the remotest antiquity. The Vedic conquerors of India were fair. Indra was the protector of the white-skinned Aryans against the blackskinned aborigines. Rajpoots and Brahmans were a fair or golden-complexioned people; they affected to be descended from the sun. In time they became darker; the tradition of their origin still remained. Rajpoots and Brahmans maintained their rule by the rigour of the caste system; the force of deeplyrooted superstition; the authority of endless genealogies. But the white-complexioned Mussulmans soon overthrew the suzerainty of Hindú Rajas. The Rajpoots alone maintained a desperate struggle in their mountain fastnesses. The Turk, the Afghan, and the Moghul were in turn the sovereigns of India. property. CHAPTER IV. and officers. If the dead man had rendered good service to the Padishah whilst he was alive, a small pension might be given to his family, or a small post might be given to his eldest son. Otherwise the family was reduced to beggary.39 Rajpoot aristocracy: heredi The Rajpoot system was radically different from tary and feudal. the Moghul system. With the Rajpoots nothing was personal; everything was hereditary. Every Rajpoot held his lands in return for military service. All commands were hereditary. The vassal served his lord; the lord served his Raja; the Raja served his suzerain. Akber did not interfere with this system; he only became suzerain in the place of the Rana of Chitór. Many Rajpoot princes held out; but Akber's offers were very tempting. He left the Rajas in full possession of their dominions and revenues. He took the Rajas and their armies into his own pay. He raised the Rajas to the rank of Amírs; he gave them the pay he gave to Amírs. In return they were at his beck and call; they paid him homage; they made him presents. Some attended at court; others served in the provinces. Amalgamation of Moghul and sible. There were thus two rival armies in the state, Rajpoot impos- the Moghul and the Rajpoot. The Moghul army was composed of mercenaries; the officers were as mercenary as the men. The Rajpoot army was composed of feudal vassals; men who had obeyed their lords from generation to generation. It was impossible that the two should amalgamate. Their 33 The origin of the Moghul system of a white-complexioned nobility is a problem. Possibly it may be referred to a remote period in Moghul history. The Moghuls were a royal tribe. Depriving the nobility of all hereditary rights is another problem. Manouchi says that Báber was the founder of the system; but Báber never had the power to carry it out. Possibly it was founded by Akber with the help of the Rajpoot princes. natures were different; their instincts were differ- CHAPTER IV. ent. That Akber made every effort to amalgamate the two cannot be doubted. The Rajpoots were flattered; the Moghuls became Hinduized. Within three or four generations the Moghuls became absorbed in the native population. The collision between Moghul and Rajpoot, and the working of the Afghan element, are the main points of interest in the history of the Moghul empire. of the empire, In 1575 Akber was about thirty-four years of age. Political aspect Twenty years had passed away since the boy had 1575. -been installed as Padishah. He had not as yet conquered Kábul in the north-west, nor Bengal in the south-east; he had not made any sensible advance into the Dekhan. But he had gained a succession of victories. He had restored order in the Punjab and Hindustan. He had subdued Malwa, Guzerat, and Rajpootana. Many Rajpoots were still in arms against him; he had nothing to fear from them. He had fixed his capital at Agra; his favourite residence, however, was at Fathpúr Sikri, about twelve miles from Agra.34 teristics of It is easy to individualize Akber. He was haughty, Personal characlike all the Moghuls; he was outwardly clement Akber. and affable. He was tall and handsome; broad in the chest, and long in the arms. His complexion was ruddy, a nut-brown. He had a good appetite and a good digestion. His strength was prodigious. His courage very remarkable. Whilst yet a boy he displayed prodigies of valour in the battle against Hemu. He would spring on the backs 34 The distance between Fathpúr and Agra was not of much consequence. The interval was filled up by a bazar. It was also very easy to go by boat from one place to another. CHAPTER IV. of elephants, who had killed their keepers; he would compel them to do his bidding. He kept a herd of dromedaries; he gained his victories by the rapidity of his marches. He was an admirable marksman. He had a favourite gun which had brought down thousands of game. With that same gun he shot Jeimal the Rajpoot at the siege of Chitór. 35 Religion of Akber; a lax Persecution of Akber, like his father and grandfather, professed to be a Mussulman. His mother was a Persian; he was a Persian in his thoughts and ways. He was imbued with the old Moghul instinct of toleration. He was lax and indifferent, without the semblance of zeal. He consulted soothsayers who divined with burnt rams' bones. He celebrated the Persian festival of the Nau-roz, or new year, which has no connection with Islam. He reverenced the seven heavenly bodies, by wearing a dress of a different colour on every day in the week. He joined in the Brahmanical worship and sacrifices of his Rajpoot queens. Still he was outwardly a Mussulman. He had no sons; he vowed that if a son was born to him he would walk on foot to the tomb of a Mussulman saint at Ajmír; it was more than two hundred miles from Fathpúr. In 1570 his eldest son Selim was born; Akber walked to Ajmír; he offered up his prayers at the tomb.36 Meantime the Ulamá were growing troublesome Sunni Ulamá. at Agra. The Ulamá, as already seen, comprised 35 See the description of Akber in the Autobiography of Jehangir. 36 The main authority for the religion of Akber is the Aín-i-Akbari, translated, with notes, by Mr Blockmann. See especially Mr Blockmann's long note on the religion of Akber. It comprises translations of valuable extracts from Badauni's history. Badauni was an honest Mussulman who hated the innovations of Akber. |